| Summary: | Background: Heart rate (HR) is directly associated to central-to-peripheral pulse wave amplification. We aimed at evaluating the associations between heart rate and each BP component in a cohort of healthy adolescents.
Objective: 470 healthy adolescents (17±1.4 years, 56% boys, brachial BP 123/67±11/7 mmHg, HR 72±12 bpm) were enrolled in the present study. Brachial BP was measured on 3 occasions by validated devices. Central BP was estimated by radial and brachial applanation tonometries, and calibrated to brachial MAP/DBP (SphygmoCor).
Results: Brachial and central BP were 123/67±11/7 mmHg and 105/69±9/8 mmHg. SBPamp was 1.17±0.04, PPamp was 1.57±0.13, while DBP amplification was 0.97±0.01 (DBP attenuation). HR had a direct correlation with brachial and central DBP (r=0.38 and r=0.46, both p<0.01) and central SBP (r=0.09, p=0.04), but not with peripheral SBP (p=0.59), and a negative one with brachial and central PP (r=−0.24 and r=−0.37, both p<0.01). HR had a positive association with PPamp (r=0.38, p<0.01), and a negative one with SBPamp (r=−0.14, p<0.01) and DBPamp (r=−0.55, p<0.01). The slope of BP change for each 10-bpm HR increase was steeper for central DBP (2.8±0.3 mmHg), than for peripheral DBP (2.2±0.3 mmHg, p for difference between regression coefficients <0.01), and for central and brachial DBP than for central SBP (0.7±0.3 mmHg, both p<0.01).
Conclusions: HR is associated with more pronounced changes in DBP than in SBP, and in central than peripheral DBP. Increasing HR may attenuate DBP from centre to periphery. The assumption that DBP is constant along the arterial tree may not be valid during dynamic conditions.
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